Tag Archives: 80s

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is another list of potential comebacks that would’ve been fun to play with in video games.

As I’ve taken a few more trips around the sun, I’ve developed stronger opinions about veterans seemingly being shooed out of the NBA. It just doesn’t feel right when long-tenured players – especially former All-Stars – end their careers so unceremoniously. Of course, as Jackie MacMullan discussed in a column some ten years ago, veteran NBA players don’t always know when their time has come, and when to let go. She cited R.C. Buford, who recalled an embarrassing 15-minute workout by an unnamed former Spurs player after they expressed an interest in returning midseason.

Mind you, some players do retire too soon, while others have shown that they can still be productive in their late 30s and even into their 40s. There have also been successful comebacks, even if those players weren’t quite as good as they were in their prime. As much as “Wizards Michael Jordan” is a meme, that stint is slightly underrated, as MJ was finding his groove prior to his knee injury. With that in mind, I’m in favour of players making or even just considering comebacks. There are some fascinating What Ifs with the ones that almost happened, and they could’ve been a blast in video games, too. And so, here are five more comebacks that would’ve been fun for hoops gamers!

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m reflecting on my feelings of nostalgia and indeed anemoia when playing with players from before my time in basketball games.

Like most people, my nostalgia for basketball and basketball gaming is intertwined. Whether I’m dusting off a classic game or playing with historical content in a newer title, I’m usually indulging my nostalgia for the 90s and 2000s. However, I’ve grown increasingly fond of playing with many of the Legends from before my time. This includes players who retired before I was even born, as well as those whose careers wrapped up shortly before I became a hardcore basketball fan in the mid 90s. Even though I didn’t grow up watching those players, they’re still nostalgic to me.

It may sound strange to have nostalgia for a time that I never experienced, but it’s not uncommon. In fact, John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows has given a name to such feelings: the aforementioned anemoia. Needless to say, it applies to more than just basketball and basketball gaming, but it aptly describes my newfound enthusiasm for playing with players from before my time. Although it’s more of a recent habit for me, upon reflection, my introduction to basketball clearly laid the groundwork for such anemoia. Let’s take a look at how I’ve come to enjoy going back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the Legends teams that would’ve been viable in eighth generation NBA Live titles.

A couple of years ago, I reflected on the misuse of Legends in NBA Live. While the series made a big splash with historical content when Michael Jordan and other all-time greats were added in NBA Live 2000, it’s had countless missed opportunities since then. From losing the rights to include certain Legends to leaving them out of the seventh generation releases entirely, NBA Live hasn’t done an impressive job with historical content. Legends were thankfully present in the eighth generation NBA Live games, but were exclusive to specific modes.

This is one of the reasons why Ultimate Team has been one of my favourite modes in eighth gen NBA Live: it’s where I can actually play with Legends! Of course, I wish that they were more readily available. To that point, some people have argued that that wouldn’t be feasible, as it would draw attention to how thin NBA Live’s historical content is compared to what’s on offer in NBA 2K. However, while NBA 2K does boast a massive array of retro players and classic squads, eighth gen NBA Live games could’ve viably included some Legends teams. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m putting some Legends back in uniform in NBA 2K9.

As I’ve mentioned before, whenever I’m hooked on an older basketball video game, part of my retro kick involves messing around with the rosters. I particularly enjoy this is in any game that has Legends and retro jerseys, as it allows me to set up some historical scenarios. While playing NBA 2K9 ahead of producing my retrospective, I ended up putting many of the Legends back in uniform. It turned out to be a fun way to talk about some strange stints that weren’t captured in the rosters of any other video games (aside from one that I felt was too important not to cover).

Before I re-created those examples of familiar faces in strange places using NBA 2K9 though, I was placing Legends back in the uniforms that they famously wore. It may seem like an unusual thing to do when there are so many games – and for that matter, mods – that allow me to play with historical rosters. However, there’s just something really fun and satisfying about messing around with a game’s retro content! NBA 2K9 doesn’t feature the largest selection of Legends in the 2K series, but it has enough to depict some memorable moments in NBA history. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #565 of the NLSC Podcast!

How many hours per week are we currently spending on the virtual hardwood, and which modes are keeping us hooked? This week, we join the community in crunching the numbers, and sharing our preferred ways to play. Needless to say, we also make a point of encouraging everyone to stick to the activities and style of play that is the most fun for them! We also poll our fellow basketball gamers and hardcore hoop heads on their picks for the era in NBA history that was the deepest in terms of talent, as well as which one boasted the biggest array of stars. While it may sound contradictory, they aren’t necessarily one and the same in everyone’s eyes!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:09:20 — 48.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with a totally serious theory (OK, not really) of how some classic John Hughes movies foretold the rise and fall of the Chicago Bulls.

The holiday season is in full swing with Christmas this week, and since that coincides with summertime here in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s also come to be known as our “silly season“. Therefore, in the spirit of the season, I’m mixing Monday Tip-Off with JaoSming’s old column, Dumb Mondays (what is this, a crossover episode?!?). This silly, light-hearted, Christmas-related topic is one that I’ve actually been sitting on for years, so it’s time to put it out there for some holiday cheer. Don’t worry; everything will be back to normal next week!

As a 90s kid, I can’t help but associate the movies of the late, great John Hughes with Christmas and the holidays. That’s chiefly due to Planes, Trains and Automobiles – a film set at Thanksgiving – and the first two Home Alone movies, two classics that take place at Christmas and are very near and dear to my generation. It only makes sense to reflect on those films and watch them again during the holiday season, but what do those iconic John Hughes movies have to do with the Chicago Bulls dynasty? Well, some years back, a Forum post prompted me to draw comparisons between the plots of those films, and the rise and eventual fall of the Bulls. Strap in, we’re getting silly!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #558 of the NLSC Podcast!

The state of the NBA is once again on our minds, and so we pose the question: are three-pointers actively ruining the league and making it far less fun to watch? As much as we enjoy long-range sharpshooters doing their thing and a timely trey that makes the net explode, we also believe that the chucking is really getting out of hand and affecting the overall quality of play. It’s clear that we’re not alone in feeling this way, and to that end, this week we join the community in discussing potential ideas of how to best combat the three-point problem that is afflicting the NBA, and for that matter, modern basketball in general.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 54:01 — 37.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

I’ve enjoyed making the NBA 2K14 Retro Series a more regular feature on our YouTube channel so far this year. However, I’ll actually have to play some more of those games as I’m now at the end of the footage that I captured prior to my old desktop crashing late last year! I’m presenting a fun showdown in the meantime though, as Julius Erving and the 1985 Philadelphia 76ers clash with Sidney Moncrief and the 1985 Milwaukee Bucks.

The 1985 76ers are one of NBA 2K’s oddball classic teams; not because they aren’t a good squad to include and a sensible one for Dr. J’s NBA’s Greatest challenge, but because in real life, they featured a rookie Charles Barkley. You won’t find Sir Charles on the team in the game of course, and since the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14 doesn’t support modding (or even Create-a-Player), he’s conspicuously absent in this re-creation. Nevertheless, The Doctor is in vintage form, Sidney Moncrief is at the top of his game for the Bucks, and the game produced some great 80s NBA action. Check it out!

I’m not sure which showdown and era will be featured next, but the NBA 2K14 Retro Series is a lot of fun to produce, so there’ll be more to come! Until then, please subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.